Sitting, waiting, wishing...

I had plans to maybe go hang with my friend Amanda today. 

But, instead, I am sitting at my house, waiting for Jamie's computer to come from Fed-ex. 

It didn't come while he was here, so he's panicked that it won't come. 

So, here I am.

Waiting for his macbook.

Oh well, at least I've gotten stuff done around the house and yard!

Gotta look on the bright side, right?

♥

Re-committed. And tired.

Today my friends, will by day 8 of 8 straight days of work.

all of the shifts were 6-10 hours long. 

For 8. straight. days.

Needless to say, I'm ready for a break, and that is a large part of my lack of non-simple blogging.

I've been at the new store now for 3 weeks, and it has gone a lot better than I expected. I actually really enjoy it. Just not 8 straight days of it. =)

I have re-committed to being a flexitarian.  It will be super difficult when school starts, but for now it's not been bad.  I just make 2-3 vegetarian meals a week, and eat them and their leftovers at work and at home, keeping me meat free, and then allow myself fish or chicken once or twice on the weekends. 

The vegetarian section of the "Healthy College Cookbook" has become my best friend. 

I love that cookbook.

Last week I had brocolli-tofu stir fry, garlic and tofu green beans, and pasta salad.

This week I've had Sesame noodles, a different pasta salad, and today I made ginger-soy tofu over rice.

It's delicious. 

Other than massive amounts of work, things have been pretty good in this household. Recycling is taking off, which I am so excited about. It's a real eye opener to see how much we've been throwing away that we could have been recycling. 

We re-potted the mandarin tree, so there is more dirt under it now.

And we have peppers from the garden, but everything else is kind of stalled due to this ridiculous heat.

Jamie and I have been getting to spend a lot of time together lately, and it's been so nice. We've finally gotten into that summer swing. Unfortunately, school starts in less than a month. But, I don't want to talk about that yet. 

Tomorrow we are hanging out with our friends Amanda and Joe.  Joe and Jamie are going golfing, and Amanda and I are going to get pedicures. Neither of us have ever had one, so we thought we would go together to try it. I'm really excited, I love seeing those two. It's nice to have friends we can get together with, and I always feel good when I'm with them.

And I got to talk to Misty yesterday, which was so great. 

Oh yeah, and Minnie's in heat again, so you can imagine what she's been like to deal with. If you can't imagine, here is a picture from the last time.

And I will leave you with a thought from the other day.  When I was a kid, I read the book "Harriet the Spy" by Louise Fitzhugh about 50 times. I loved it.  There is a simple passage in there, in the 3rd chapter, where Harriet is talking to her best friend, that says:

"She never minded admitting she didn't know something. 'So what?' she thought; 'I could always learn.'"

I realized the other day, when the grocery store clerk looked at me like an idiot because I didn't know that scallions and green onions were the same things, that this one tiny passage has helped shaped my life. As I started to feel really stupid, and stopped and thought, "So what? how was I supposed to know if no one ever told me?" And then I didn't feel bad. It's amazing the kind of power books can give us. That one small passage has helped shape me into the person I am. I feel confident even in not knowing things, because I can just learn them later. 

And I love that.

♥ 

Husband and I
are officially...

Recyclers.

It feels good.
I'm really glad we live in an area that offers curbside recycling.

♥

What a day...

It's been insane. 

Today started off great, though.

Jamie and I went shopping for yard supplies.

I am so beyond excited, because we got a hammock stand on sale!!!!

I have been wanting a hammock for over a year, and I am so pumped for this!

Here is the one I ordered for us, it should be here within two weeks.

Awesome!

My other wonderful (and nerdy) find was this!

It is so informative, and is going to be super helpful.

We spent the morning working in the yard, and we are reenforcing our fence.

Take that rabbits!

Then, right as I was getting started at pulling weeds, looking forward to a night to relax in my garden, I got a text from work that said "Where are you?"

Yep. I was definitely scheduled to work 5-midnight.

So, with nasty, dirty hair, and having worked outside for hours, I had to go into work.

Yeah. Eww.

As I was pulling out of my drive, I noticed that my car was making a really strange noise.

Then, as I was going, all of my gauges went to zero. I had no idea how fast I was going, how many RPMs, nothing.  My odometer wasn't even rolling. Then, as I went to turn, I realized I had no acceleration power.  Then my power steering went out. I just kept thinking "Please just get me to work!" And then, right as I pulled into the lot at work, it died. Completely died. 

Yeah...It's not good.

We're pretty sure it's the alternator, which means we will have to buy a new one and a new battery. Ouch.

Jamie can't try and fix it until Saturday, so we are a one car family until then.

Ouch, again.

But, I did get to talk to the lovely Misty tonight, so it was a positive ending. =)

Here's hoping Jamie can get my car running before my work transfer on Sunday!

Oh, life. You are interesting. 

♥

Keeping myself busy...

I have been working really hard around the house these past couple of weeks. I have gotten a crazy amount of things done, and much more to do.

This past Sunday, we went to Jamie's mom's house, and took a ton of starts from her garden.  We then came back and planted them (making for a busy mothers day for us). 

Im excited, they all seem to be doing really well, which I was worried about since they were transplants.

We got Lilly of the Valley, antique Irises, and some ferns for the hill in our backyard.

I also got some mint and lemon mint, which you can dry and steep to add to tea flavoring.

Pretty excited about that.

We were also given some palm tree sprouts from their trip to Florida.  

Jamie's super excited about them (I'm not holding out much hope for their life in Indiana, though.)

But, we did get a patio mandarin tree from a local greenhouse that I am pretty pumped about.  It is bred to  be fairly small, but still yield mandarins.  You just have to bring it inside during the winter.

I'm pretty happy with it, although it will be a few years before we will have fruit. 

I also did the semi-annual great Goodwill purge.  

It was nuts.

I try to go through all of my clothes twice a year, once at the beginning of summer, and once at the beginning of winter, and get rid of anything I haven't worn in a year.

I pulled everything out of my drawers and closet, and created piles based on the type of clothes (winter/summer) and whether I was keeping them or not.  Then I reorganize them when I put them back.

This is my closet afterwards,

And this is the bag I'm giving to Goodwill.  Woah.

Now back to the yard.  

I finally have my garden!!

Jamie tilled it yesterday while I was at work, and I came home and planted it.

Tada!

It is so awesome.

There is Sweet Corn, Asparagus, Strawberries, Green Beans, Lettuce, Basil, Oregano, and Parsley.

I also left room for one tomato plant, one onion plant, and one pepper plant, so Jamie can make salsa, so I should be adding those soon.

There will also eventually be a fence, we can't seem to agree on what kind we want.

I love that I finally have my garden, and am looking forward to fresh veggies.

I'm also planning something big. Composting. 

Instead of writing it out, check out these articles

Here

and

Here

if you want to know more about it. 

This is my plan for building my composting bin, which there are about a million of.

Pretty basic, just some chicken wire to hold it together, and I'm going to put stakes in it to make it more stable, and a lid to keep critters out. 

We already have a huge amount of yard waste to use, and we've been keeping the bag in the area where we are going to build the bin.

I've also started collecting kitchen waste, which I have quickly realized we go through much faster than I thought.  

Once I get the bin built, It will be relatively easy to maintain.

I'm really excited about this. 

It makes me feel good to know that I'm doing something to keep my garden organic, and reduce waste.

So this has essentially consumed my life lately.

I've been working really hard on it, and still have a lot to do.

But, I feel very accomplished.

I need this right now,

as it's a problem in other areas of my life.

Like school.

I'll get to that another day, though, the wounds are still a bit to fresh.

For now, I just want the rain to stop, so I can work on my yard again!

♥

Today...

Today is going to be a good day.

I can feel it.

And after yesterday, I need it.

I have spring fever like crazy. 

I will post some house improvements and projects soon.

I've gone house crazy.

You will be amazed.

♥

Oh the productivity!!

I have had the most productive day ever today. 

It's been great!

This is what I left when I went to work this morning.

hahaha, bums. 

I got off work a little early because we were slow. No one rents movies when it's gorgeous outside. 

Then, I got to work! Here is what I accomplished this evening!

 Updated our calendar (on time for once!)

 Planted Pansies along our walkway, because I'm tired of it being bare! I love them!

 Did a deep clean of the carpet in the office!

 Made time for Starbucks. Love. 

Got all of the dishes done! Yay!

And while I did all this, Jamie worked on repairing the grass in the front yard. It needed it. 

On the agenda for tomorrow:

 Re-organizing the office. It's a hot mess. It became my catch-all during student teaching. 

Wanted to do it today, but the carpet has ended up being a bigger job than I expected. 

Clean up the laundry explosion in my room. This is my #1 bad habit. 

I'm excited that I've been able to focus on the house more. 

I'm one paper away from the semester being over!!

So, so excited.

♥

A lot of randomness.

Worked my last 18 hour day for a while on Friday.

It was my last day of student teaching.

I cried.

I have learned so much, and am so thankful for the time I got to be there. 

I had about a million goodbye cards, and I will love them forever.

Then I worked all day Saturday, and then Jamie and I went out and joined the masses of the last minute shoppers, because I decided I wanted a new dress for Easter. 

I had something really weird happen to me, when shopping though.

For the first time in a very long time, I felt super uncomfortable and unhappy with my body.

It took me a very long time to come to terms with the fact that I will never be a size 2, and to learn to love my body the way it is.  

But for some reason, while trying on dresses, I had this attack of self-consciousness.
I actually cried in the dressing room, and told Jamie "I feel humongous! I hate it!"

It actually kind of freaked Jamie out a bit, because as he said "In the 4 years we have been together you have never voiced any kind of concern like that to me at all." 

I was able to pull myself together after a few minutes and a husband pep talk, and have a good night.

I'm still a bit shaken from it though, and don't really understand why it happened.

But anyway, this is the one I ended up with:

I'm really happy with it, it's super cute.

It'll also work great for the 3 weddings I have to go to this summer. 

More than anything, I was just excited to get to spend the evening with Jamie.

We still don't see much of each other, and we can't wait until the school year's over, so we have more time together. 

We also had our grandfather clock delivered!

Jamie's Nan left us that clock specifically in her will, and I know he is so thrilled for it to be at our house finally.  It looks amazing.

The picture totally doesn't do it justice, but I hope you can at least tell how grand it is. 

I love it.

I was a bit worried that the chime would annoy me at first, but it's actually very quiet, which works perfectly for us.

And then yesterday for Easter, we were going to drive to Rockville and spend it with Jamie's family, but after church Jamie just wasn't feeling well.

He still isn't, and the doctor told him today that he is not allowed to go back to work until wednesday.

I think it's a combination of exhaustion and a cold he is coming down with. 

He just feels totally run down, and exhausted all the time.

Hopefully these two days off will help. 

(And I'm pretty thrilled about having him home with me tonight and tomorrow night.)

So, instead, we spend the evening of Easter taking naps, watching movies, and studying at Arby's. 

It was actually really great.

I'm excited about a lot of things.

School being almost over, Summer, more time with Jamie, my garden, and vacations, including a visit to see Misty very soon! 

Yay!

But now i have to go do homework, to make sure that I pass this class and can enjoy my summer. 

Uggh.

♥

Quick break...

I'm taking a homework break.

Yep, this is the part of the semester when I actually try to do all of my reading.

Hah!

Well, this week has been crazy. 

The class part of my school sucks, that's to be expected.

But I met the students and teacher of the class I am to be student teaching in.

and it is Wonderful!

It's an ESL school, so they bus Hispanic students in from all over the city. 

I am a major minority in the school, let alone my class.

and I love it!

The kids were so fun, and I am so excited to learn from them.

And my teacher is amazing.

She has been at this same inner-city school for 9 years, and her class has ALWAYS had the highest I-STEP scores. Not to mention the fact that she has really high expectations for the kids, and they call her strict, but they all adore her. She's awesome.

I'm so excited to learn from her, and she seems really excited to be teaching us.

I couldn't have asked for a better placement.

I have missed Jamie a lot, it's been an adjustment. 

Plus the poor guy is sick, so he doesn't feel like doing anything.

Our house is falling apart, again.

When you are gone as much as we are, that tends to happen.

My goal for the day is to do homework in the morning, and clean in the afternoon, before work.

I am going to cook again tomorrow night. 

Last Sunday, I made a big batch of Corn and Lentil Soup.

I was going to do a blog about it, because it is a super cheap, easy recipe, and is really really good for you, and Jamie loves it, which is a good thing. 

But, we had a surprise intrusion visit from the in-laws.

After running out to the church so that Jamie could give Stephen a drum lesson (pretty excited about that, Misty) and then went grocery shopping, and when we got home for a nice quiet evening, they were outside of our house. Phone call would have been nice.

So, I hurried and put the soup on, while my mother-in-law cried for 10 minutes about her baby not coming to seeing her, and how she needed him.

My life is ridiculous sometimes. 

I was going to take a picture then, but I forgot, and then I tried to find one online, but none looked even remotely close to mine. Oh well.

And I baked four pieces of chicken, and we just ate them and the soup throughout the week. It was really nice!

I had an awesome "last hurrah" before school started last weekend!

I won a party at Howl, downtown, and it was a blast. Even some of my old friends from Ball State came! (And of course my IUPUI friends, as usual.)

(haha, poor Amanda. She doesn't take very good pictures at bars.)

It was a great way to end Christmas break.

I will leave you with this picture from this morning.

One, to show you how behind we are on housework. We forgot to put our bedclothes in the dryer last night, (okay, okay, I forgot) and we had to scrounge. These are the pink sheets I used at Ball State. haha!

And two, how cute Minnie looks when she sits like this, because she crosses her front paws. 

I love it.

♥

The sick monster speaks..

Blogging while watching Ellen. 

It's a good morning. 

But, it's been kind of a crazy week.

This past friday, we took our kids to the vet.

What. A. Nightmare.

Seriously, how could these cute, sweet, adorable little faces...

Become such monsters!

It was so awful, the vet actually suggested that we "pre-medicate" next time.

As in drug them.

Yeah, that bad.

Minnie (yes, my 5 lb. baby) had to be muzzled, and they had to hold Emma down with a towel over her head. Awful.

But, at least they have their shots, and we don't have to do it again, for a year.

Thank goodness.

On a different note, my husband is an awesome handyman.

We have been wanting to put another counter in our kitchen, so I had more counter space. 

Because I have little to none. When I baked, I would use the stools of our breakfast table to mix on.

So, a few nights ago, Jamie put in our new counter! 

It's awesome, because we can use it like a bar as well, so we still have kitchen seating.

Yes, it's missing a stool in these pictures, I was using it as a table in the living room.

Also, he picked out our new washer and dryer, (because i work ALL the time) and he did a fabulous job. And, they came yesterday!

They are amazing and wonderful! 

They are high-efficiency, so good for the environment, and are practically twice as big as our old ones.

They have digital selection screens,

My dryer has a light in it, 

And it has lots of fun features, like spinning the washer once every hour to keep your clothes from mildewing if you can't get them out right away. 

Wonderful. Absolutely awesome.

On an crummy note, I have been sick.

Really really sick, again. I got a cold on Saturday night, and then yesterday, it was hideously awful.

My nose was running, I couldn't breathe, and it had moved into my eyes, so they were constantly running, and my nose was rudolph red, and painful.

And I still had to go in for a 9 hour shift. 

But, I was working so slow, and my boss, lord love him, came to help, and while he had good intentions, he added about 1 & 1/2 hours worth of things to do. 

It became an 11 hour shift. 

I was absolutely miserable. And then I got in trouble this morning by my other boss(ish), we're technically equals, but she has 4 years seniority, for having help come in.

Well great. Thanks for that.

Anyway, I didn't take a picture of myself, because it was hideous, but this is the sign I made for Jamie as I was falling asleep, hopped up on Nyquil.

We often make signs for each other, as we miss each other due to work, school, or sleep.

And yes, ladies and gentlemen. 

This is how I looked yesterday. At work, and at home.

It was so horrible.

But, today is a new day, and I slept for 12 hours, so I am feeling quite a bit better.

Thank goodness.

One last thing, I got my bridesmaid dress for Amanda's wedding!

It was a lot of fun.

She did what I did, picked color, length, and fabric, and then we picked the style. Here is the dress I picked!

I was the only one who picked a non-strapless dress. This is the sample, so it was a size to big, and was clipped in the back. 

Here is the dress in the right color, on the size 2 (barf) DB model.

I'm excited.

School starts next week.

Trying to enjoy my time as much as possible before that. 

Here we go.

♥

Clutter and Critters

Watching "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" for the first time.

It's good, but sad.

Spent the last few hours going through Rachel Ray magazines.

For some strange reason, Jamie got like 7 months worth free.

Found some awesome recipes.

I will be trying Tortellini Con Colore tonight.

Sounds great.

Just made lunch/dinner for Jamie and I.

Today was his first day of working 2:30-11.

It was weird.

But, I think I could get used to it.

I only have to cook once a day, because I can make us a big lunch, and then use the leftovers for both of us when we work, or make myself a small dinner when I don't.

I am excited though. I really think this is a good thing.

No more nights!

Been doing some major re-organizing in the spare bedrooms.

Because of this we have a ton of stuff to get rid off.

So, I put it all on craigslist today, and since I am off today, I am playing official secretary.

We have already had 4 calls about the bookshelf.

I am sick of it already.

But, I hope like crazy that it pays off, and all of this stuff can be out of our living room.

Clutter free is good.

Speaking of bookshelf, I bought a new one for the office, because i outgrew the other one (that we are now selling.)

When I bought it, Jamie was at work.

I loaded the 70 lb. box into the cart, into the car, and into the house by myself.

Then, I put it together myself, and voila!

I was so proud of myself.

and it looks great!

My new stove finally came today.

My momma is so awesome.

But, after they delivered it,

and we got it all hooked up,

we figured out that the center burner (the one that specifically sold me on this stove)

didn't work.

at all.

So, I called Lowes, and my options were:

Order another (wait another week and a half)

or call maintenance (wait another week.)

Lame.

But, at least we have it until they come out and fix it.

The first meal I cooked on it was Crispy Cracker chicken, Mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob.

It was great!

My furry critters have been hilarious today.

I laid out a towel for Minnie after her bath yesterday.

This is where I found them this morning.

They actually were civil with each other for 10 whole minutes.

Emma was quite the little entertainer this morning.

And, when I was cutting out recipes, she decided to sit on them.

She's so stinking cute.

I love her.

I had a lovely day with my family yesterday at the Mossman family picnic.

We went to McCormick's Creek State Park.

We hiked, and ate.

It was lovely.

Only two more work shifts until Chicago!!

Uggghh, I am so excited!

♥

stuff

Last day of summer classes tomorrow.

The semester starts in 2 weeks.

dang it.

Been doing some re-arranging in the office.

Looking for a big comfy reading chair to go in there.

Probably going to have to get it used.

It's really hard to find a cute used one, though.

I really like this one from target,

But it doesn't look very comfortable.

The music room is also almost done.

looks good.

My "Almost Vegetarian" book came today.

Awesome!

Jamie is trying to adjust to his new schedule, but things will be a little hectic for a couple of weeks. He had to be at work at 6 this morning, and he was exhausted.

It's worth it, though.

Chicago a week from tomorrow!

Can't stinking wait.

So excited!

Big things happening at work.

Big things.

I have a lot to think over.

Possible management opportunity.

I think things are going to be good, though.

Excited about spending some time with Misty on Friday.

I enjoy these things.

Yup.

My life's boring.

Boring, but good.

♥

Good things!

Just finished watching an old Office episode on Hulu.

The one where Jim and Pam go to Michael and Jan's dinner party.

Laughed my butt off.

Sometimes I miss TV.

I've been really stinking busy this week.

Got my car insurance, title, and cell phone transfered from my mom's stuff to mine.

That was a hassle.

Homework.

and I had to clean my house.

It needed it.

and it does again, now. ugh.

Our camping trip was awesome, though, and it was so worth it.

When we got back, we FINALLY conquered the green room!!

This was the only room in the house that i wasn't happy with.

In fact, I hated it.

Because we hated it, it became a catch-all for stuff we didn't know what to do with.

So...we painted it!

It was glorious.

It is now officially the music room.

We cleaned out a bunch of the junk, and only took Jamie's guitars and accessories, and the piano back.

It looks a little bare right now, but it will be better once we get stuff on the walls.

I love it.

While we were painting, a door-to-door salesman.

Strike #1: He strongly resembled someone that I don't trust.

Strike #2: He asks "Are you the woman of the house?"

I answer "yes."

He says ".....really? you look really young."

Strike #3: He made dirty jokes about the product he was selling.

Really??

It was ridiculous.

I get really irritated when people see or find out my age, and then make a big deal about the fact that I am married.

So? You don't know anything about me other than my age.

Stay out of my business.

On a fabulous and awesome note...

JAMIE IS NO LONGER ON SWING SHIFT STARTING NEXT WEEK!!

This is SO many answered prayers.

We were both so tired of him having to rotate from days to nights every week.

It was awful.

But...now he will only work Monday through Friday, and during set hours!

I am so happy.

♥